CEDAR CITY, Utah — The Thunderbird men’s basketball team suffered a home loss on Thursday evening to in-state rival Weber State, 75-65.
“We weren’t great today,” SUU head coach Todd Simon said. “We’ve obviously been a fantastic defensive team, and we weren’t today. I thought it was a real physical game. We missed some shots and we let our frustrations carry over to the defensive end, and gave up buckets and drives that we don’t normally do so we’ve got to be better in that area.”
The Thunderbirds played in from of 4,021 fans in the America First Event Center, which is the most the program has ever had for a Big Sky Conference matchup. There were also 1,663 students in attendance, which broke the record for most students ever at an SUU men’s basketball game.
With the loss the T-Birds now sit at 12-8 on the year with a 5-4 record in Big Sky Conference play.
The Wildcats got out to a fast start, building an early 10-4 lead. After that point they went on a 10-3 run tot take a 20-7 lead over Southern Utah with roughly eight minutes remaining in the first half.
In the closing minutes of the first half the T-Birds were able to cut into the lead, getting it down to as low a four points, and the Wildcats took a 32-26 advantage into the halftime break.
On a couple different occasions in the second half the T-Birds were able to cut WSU’s lead down to three, but each time the Wildcats responded to hold on to the advantage.
As the half wore on, the Wildcats pulled away and built their lead to as many as 19. A late push from the T-Birds cut the Wildcat lead down to 10, as Weber State left Cedar City with a 75-65 victory.
Andre Adams was the leading scorer for the Thunderbirds on the night, scoring 17 points and pulling in eight rebounds. He finished the game 8-of-11 from the field.
Dre Marin was second in the scoring column for SUU, dropping in 15 points.
Maizen Fausett was the third T-Bird to score in double-digits, scoring 12 on the night to go along with seven rebounds.
Big Sky leading scorer Jerrick Harding ran the show for Weber State, scoring 27 points. Cody John finished with 22 points.
The T-Birds struggled to take advantage of their shots from the free throw line, hitting just 9-of-18.
For the game, Southern Utah shot just 36 percent while the visitors from Ogden shot 56 percent.
Southern Utah will be back on their home court this Saturday for their second contest against the Idaho State Bengals of the 2019-20 campaign. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. MT.
Follow the Thunderbirds all season @SUUBasketball on Twitter and Instagram and by liking the Southern Utah Basketball page on Facebook.
Read all about the Thunderbirds on www.suutbirds.com.
